


Memorial Day (The Definitive Collection)

by wanderlustlover



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-27
Updated: 2012-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-17 03:42:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderlustlover/pseuds/wanderlustlover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>One day he’d be one of them.</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> A serial of prompts in my <b>No Task Is Too Big When</b> challenges, based on Memorial Day's in every different part of Steve McGarrett's life, from childhood up through the Five-0 Task Force.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JK Ashavah (ashavah)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashavah/gifts), [alemara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alemara/gifts).



> **Setting** : 1976-1991, Steve's Childhood

When he was young, Memorial Day’s were spent first on Pearl at The Arizona Memorial, for Taps, the rifle salute, the Ford Island Tour. Then to The Punchbowl. Where the Governor spoke. The Army Band played for The Parade of Flags.

And, while Mary fretted her dress, Steve would say it, _again_ , to himself, through the 21-Gun Salute and The Missing Man helicopter flyover.

One day he’d be one of them. He’d stand side-by-side, with all the men he looked up to on this day, with all the men whose graves were wreathed in leis. Like his Dad and Grandfather.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Setting:** The Naval Academy, 1993-1997

In the Academy, it’s a little different. Land locked, but no less reverent.  
The events overflow into a Memorial Weekend that spans the greater Annapolis area.

 

He never misses the Naval Commissioning, the Ceremony in Edgewater, the Sailing Seminars, and the USA Main Street Parade. But throughout the years he samples several others. Marley’s Carnival. Odenton’s. The Colonial Players. The Strawberry Festival. A Flea Market.

 

Celebrations of life, death, and deeply respected, dedicated sacrifice. That pass like a silent, steel noose, forging his longing to get out and do what he can, tighter and truer, each year closer to graduation.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Setting:** 1997-2002, The Navy/Individual Augmentee/Office of Naval Intellegence

Sea Duty, with IA and ONI, is eighty percent of his next half decade, and almost all holidays, including Days of Remembrance, are spent at sea. Especially when he has no need for Shore Duty. But they don’t forget.

Even after twelve hour shifts, standing through to a storm’s calm, with the swells still battering the sides, slicking the skin, no one forgets. Convening in pressed dress to listen to Commanding Officer’s give speeches.

Not to mourn the passing of dead comrades, but to praise them.

To raise a hand and salute the finest of ends, a remembrance of honor.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Setting:** 2004, Coronado Island

His watch will be seventeen hours. The main Drill Sergeant is in his face at the tenth. Demanding. He wasn’t assigned Watch today. He doesn’t move at all. Says only _Sir, yes, Sir. He sent his men to ‘Diego for the celebration._

It gets more yelling. Before the question. Why didn’t he go, was he disloyal? Didn’t he want to see?

No hesitation. No twitch. Still. Face forward. _Sir, no, Sir. This day wasn’t something you could see._

_But sometimes you had to look at it for a long time first._

 

 

The pause, before the yelling restarts, says it all.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Setting:** 2004-2010, Location Redacted, Location Classified

Missions abroad make Sea Duty leave look extravagant. He’s less than traceable. Rarely in international waters or allied lands. He misses all of them. But he doesn’t. All the same. He remembers like it’s embedded in his skin. A sore, aching joint.

But the third sticks with him.

Celebrated four days late. With the most expensive bottle that wouldn’t raise eyebrows, and tiny paper cups. Pastel blue. Each shot christened with a different name before each drink. A two-word address to unknown hallowed stories, unsung heroes.

The way they toasted long into the night, long after the bottle was empty.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Setting:** 2010, Honolulu Hawaii (Five-0 Task Force, Year One)

He goes alone. Takes the whole day off. Walks through just as many shadows of his childhood as he continues to do so sleeping and living in _that_ house.

On Pearl, at the Arizona Memorial, he lets his head bow, in a way it never did as a child, looking at his grandfather’s name. In The Punchbowl, as the 21-Gun Salute and The Missing Man fly over take place, he doesn't stop it.

His posture shifts, gaze moving toward where his father’s placard rests, where the McGarrett children had their first picnic in nineteen years, where his mission still lies.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Setting:** 2011, Honolulu Hawaii (Five-0 Task Force, Year Two)

The invite is habit. Even historically educational. At least he tells himself.

They say yes, either way. Danny, at his side, silently respectful and noisily awkward in turns. Grace, the picture of innocence: skipping away, braids flapping, beaming when Steve offers to let her lei his father’s plaque.

They do their best through his schedule, but he still sends them to Ford Island with prebought tickets, to a tour with the memorial and the museum, for two hours free. Only to be more keenly aware of their absence, and the time creeping, than he ever wasn’t inconvenienced by their presence.


End file.
